English Journal - Volume 99, Issue 4, 2010

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.

Bonnie Sunstein holds a joint appointment as professor of English and of education at the University of Iowa. She teaches English education, nonfiction writing, research methods, and American folklore, and she serves as both director of undergraduate writing in English and program chair of English education. Before coming to Iowa in 1992, she taught in public secondary schools and colleges throughout New England, and she continues to teach in local, national, and international institutes. She wrote Composing a Culture: Inside a Summer Writing Program with High School Teachers (Boynton/Cook, 1994). With Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater, she authored What Works: A Practical Guide for Teacher Research (Heinemann, 2006) and Field-Working: Reading and Writing Research (Bedford), soon to be in its fourth edition. Bonnie has edited three books on portfolios. Her chapters, articles, and poems appear regularly in professional journals and anthologies. She’s been an active member of NCTE since 1966, most recently serving on its Task Force for the National Day on Writing and the Steering Committee for the Norman Mailer Writing Awards.

Students’ lives can be their inspiration for reading literary memoirs and writing mini-memoirs.

Complex visual thinking can enhance students’ abilities to write compelling nonfiction.

Visual design in contemporary nonfiction has taken on too big a role for writing teachers to ignore. Welch offers creative ideas for bringing image into English class.

Why did the writer say it this way? Lamb reconsiders the value of focusing on the author’s intention.

Stephen King, Dave Barry, and other essayists in popular magazines can engage student writers and offer fresh examples of excellent writing.

Reading about real lives in real contexts can help students understand how nonfiction texts inform the future.

The authors discuss two online games designed to heighten students’ awareness of the crisis in Darfur and understanding of global poverty.

The 1955 murder of Emmett Till inspired a Bob Dylan song, two Chris Crowe novels, and Carlson’s method for teaching his students about the tragedy.

Miller shows how Machiavelli’s classic work on tyranny is still relevant after almost 500 years.

Standardized exam writing may cause problems, but secondary and college writing teachers can work together to solve them.

What exactly does good writing look like? The authors propose some practical answers.

“Adolescents and Texts” focuses on adolescent literacy and the teaching of reading in high school and middle school.